from zero
to fintech
2026

07 – 15 March 2026

125, bul. Tsarigrasko shose

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
and online


ORGANISERS

What is From Zero To Fintech?

The contemporary Fintech market is as boundless as the Galaxy. With this Hackathon, we – CEE Centre for Digital Finance, FEBA at Sofia University, and our partners are aiming at navigating you through all asteroids, comets, black holes, or supernovas in the Fintech world of 2026. In a series of workshops, the event provides all participants with the tools to:

  • Build a spacecraft – creating a sustainable Fintech idea
  • Prepare for take-off – pitching before investors
  • Make sure to avoid asteroids – be in compliance with regulations
  • Land your spaceship successfully on a new territory – awards provided by our sponsors, in the form of services, will help your ideas come to life

Who is it for?

From Zero To Fintech is open to everyone who want to skyrocket into the open space and explore the depths of Finance, IT, Marketing, Sales, Law, etc. We welcome aboard all Fintech-savvy disruptors who are not afraid to face the market reality and test their abilities and ideas.

Sounds like you?

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Institutional Partners

SUPPORTED BY

PARTNERS

General Partner
Gold Partner
Bronze Partner

CHALLENGES

  1. Build your own FinTech startup
    a. Make your own Future in Finance: Develop and test an idea from the ground up
    b. Get the best advice from our mentors to prepare for an independent entrepreneurial path and (maybe 😉) become the new Robinhood™
  2. Case studies (coming soon)
    a. Apply your advanced IT skills and develop open banking solutions for payments, credit risk management, asset management, insurance, green finance, smart regulation and smart cities, and more
    b. Provide solutions to cases suggested by Bulgarian and international companies and government institutions
    c. Get noticed by FinTech and BigTech companies that search for TOP talent

Jury

Academia

Boryana Pelova

Associate Professor
of Data Science
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

Bozhidar Nedev

Associate Professor
of Behavioral Finance
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

Bulgarian Fintech Sector Jury Members

Vasily
Piatidis

COO
Tessoris

Anka
Kostova

Directorate “Regulatory regimes of investment activity – investment intermediaries and crypto-asset service providers” at FSC

Vladimir
Lalov

Director, SME Development Directorate

BSMEPA

Anita Yanudova

Product Process Manager
Paysafe

WORKSHOP MENTORS – FINTECH WIZARDS

Martin
Kuvandzhiev

CEO Encorp.ai

Nikolay Stoykov

CEO Axiomy

Vesilena Markova

Eleven Ventures

Boris
Rangelov

Co-Founder Build Sprint

Kaloyan Bukovski

Director – Academia & Research & Senior Consulting Manager at
Sopra Steria

Ivaylo Ivanov

Director at
Founder Institute

Slavyan Nakev

Sales Operations at
Qaiware and UNAK

Deyan
RadeV

Professor
of Fintech and Banking
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

Nikolay
Lazarov

Director Marketing and Communication at
Borica AD

Hackathon MENTORS

Rostisalav Totev

CEO
Altcoins.bg

Deyan
RadeV

Professor
of Fintech and Banking
Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski”

Velko Velkov

From Zero to Fintech Finalist

Georgi
Tonchev

CEO
Future Factory Global

Georgi Penev

Head of Sales and Biz Dev
VSG BG

Mihail Hristov

Product Manager
Gameloft

AGENDA

REGISTRATION PERIOD

Wednesday 19 Feb 2026 – Friday 06 Mar 2026

Registration with ideas/interests in Fintech via a Registration form
– All registrants will sign up with their credentials, short bio and their Fintech field of interest (by categories: Regtech, Insurtech, payments, etc.). Either propose an original Fintech idea or choose between the case studies provided by our partners (coming soon)

OPENING DAY

Saturday (07 Mar 2026)

9:30 – 9:40 – Hackathon Kick-off & Overview
9:40 – 17:45 – Workshops
17:45 – 18:00 – End of Day 1

Location: 125, bul. Tsarigradsko Shose, Sofia or online
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University “St.Kliment Ohridski”

WORKSHOPS

Saturday 07 Mar 2026 (FEBA Campus)
# Name of Workshop Organization involved Company name Speaker Time
1 Why Fintech – the case study of Bulgaria + Academia + Private Sector NGO CEE Centre for Digital Finance prof. Deyan Radev &
Kaloyan Bukovski & Georgi Penev 		 9:40 – 10:00
2 The Latest in Fintech – AI AI Company Encorp.io Martin Kuvandzhiev 10:00 – 10:30
3 The VC fund market for Fintech Ideas VC Fund Eleven Ventures Veselina Markova 10:30 – 11:00
4 The Proper Marketing of a Fintech Product/Service + 15 mins Break Fintech  Borica Nikolay Lazarov 11:00 – 11:45
5 How to sell a Fintech Product/Service? Fintech Qaiware & UNAK Slavyan Nakev 11:45 – 12:15
6 How to build with AI AI Company Lovable Ambassador Boris Rangelov 12:15-
12:45
7 What is a Good Fintech Product? Product Design Company Axiomy Nikolay Stoykov 12:45 – 13:15
8 Lunch Break       13:15-14:00
9 How to build a winning pitch deck IT Company Founder Institute Ivaylo Ivanov 14:00 – 17:45

 

CREATING FINTECH SOLUTIONS

Sunday – Friday (08 – 13 Mar 2026)

  1. Getting to know each other and the tools we will use
    Guided communication by organisers. During the Hackathon, we will use Slack, Slido, Miro and many more, so in the beginning, we will have a small talk about the tools we will use to communicate and execute.
  2. Forming the dream teams
    Creating teams around Fintech ideas
  3. Working with mentors
    Mentors jump in in every team and help with 30-minute advice per team (mentors agree with the teams suitable for the mentor time of the meetings).

CREATING PITCHING VIDEOS

Saturday, 14 Mar 2026

In the morning:
 Having another 10-minute mentor session with all teams, if needed

In the afternoon:
 Teams creating 3-minute pitching videos

THE BIG DAY

Sunday, 15 Mar 2026

Location: 125, bul. Tsarigradsko Shose, FEBA Campus Sofia and online

  • Live streaming
    Streaming a pitching session of the pre-recorded videos
  • Evaluation process
    The jury will have their last thoughts and opinion on what you propose
  • Fintech Conference
    While judging, we will jump into the following discussions:
    – Fintech Of The Future; Duration – 1:15 hrs.
    Stay tuned to find out the line-up!

Awarding Ceremony
Let’s have the best teams win!

PRINCIPLES

Fulfill these principles and let your creativity rise and shine

ELIGIBILITY
The hackathon welcomes everyone interested in the field of finance. Whether you are a business, IT, Marketing, Sales or Law focused, or just a Fintech-savvy who wants to be the creator of the next generation Fintech, that’s the place for you!

TEAM SIZE
If you don’t have a team yet, during the event we will help you form teams of up to 6 people. The dream team would look like: 1.Finance 2. IT 3. Marketing 4. Sales 5. Legal. Teams with 50-50 women-men receive extra points.

CHECK-IN IS A MUST
All participants have to register by 23:59 on 6th March.

SUBMIT ON TIME
All teams should submit their work by 23:59 on 14th March. Any presentations submitted after will be invalid.

OWNERSHIP AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Teams have full ownership of everything they create during the event. Teams are free to do with it as they see wish.

BE NICE WITH EACH OTHER
We are all here to have fun and learn from the best. No need for hard feelings. Keep your cool :)

FAQs

You are welcome to ask anything but first, check these Q&As

The Hackathon is completely FREE of charge. Zero. Zip. Nada.

Don’t worry about that, you just fill in the form below and type in a short bio of yours, ideas, passion, interests and so on. The Hackathon is about meeting new, fresh people. We will get you in a team according to your interests and profile. But, still there will be plenty of time for everyone to meet other and pick teams before the start of the actual hacking.

We will use Slack, Microsoft Teams, Miro as a whiteboard and Google.

The business cases are provided by Fintech companies that are willing to challenge you in resolving a real-life problem. Get the puzzle sorted and you can expect a call from them.

Of course you can! You are more than welcome to work on your own idea. Make sure it matches Judge’s expectations and workshops’ training. If you don’t have a team yet, you better hurry and share your idea with the audience, so you get the best chances on building the team you dreamed of.

Mentors are there to help you. They will make the best out of their schedule to meet and discuss relevant topics to them. If you are having an idea on Regtech you will be provided with the list of mentors on Regtech. Give them a shout and schedule a suitable time for both your team and your mentor.

The best ideas will receive awards, provided by our sponsors, in the form of cash and/or services that will further support the development of the ideas and help them step up in the market.

From Zero To Fintech Hackathon is not about the winning, it’s about the learning. Through the hackathons and the process of working in teams you will get unique insights about the Fintech market and meet amazing people on the way. There is always a next year and you will more than welcomed to join once again :) 

Good wi-fi and a PC. Most importantly – passion to work in a team and a smile on your face. 

If we haven’t answer to all your questions, feel free to drop us a line at: [email protected]

JUDGING CRITERIA

To win this race you need to go the whole nine yards. So you better get an idea on how your idea will be evaluated.

  • Is your idea answering a need or/and solving an existing problem in the financial sphere?
  • How well do you understand your potential customers’ needs?
  • Who will be your users, and do they differ from your customers?

  • What information do you rely on when creating your Minimum Viable Product?
  • Did you manage to build a prototype?
  • How effective is your solution?
  • Did you collect customer feedback?
  • Did you incorporate customer feedback into your solution?

  • What is your key value proposition?
  • What is your competition?
  • Which is your specific target market and audience?
  • How will you acquire your first customers?
  • How feasible is your solution?
  • What is the regulatory framework you will operate in?
  • How scalable is your solution?
  • Is the solution unique to the Bulgarian market only or you can apply/expand the model abroad?
  • Can your solution be executed by the team (potentially with the help of outside experts, attracted later)?
  • What are the potential risks for the implementation of your business plan (e.g., economic, political, regulatory, etc.)? How would you address them?

  • Is your solution solving a convenience problem of existing services or provides a new service?
  • Does your service target or is it accessible to the “unbanked” population?
  • How does your service make our life as a society better?

PRIZES

EUR 1,000

The Centre provides EUR 1,000 to the winner of From Zero To Fintech Hackathon

The Digital Finance Centre prize

The winner of the Digital Finance Centre prize receives EUR 1,000 which should be used for the realisation of the Fintech created during the event. The prize will be given to the team with the best overall performance throughout the hackathon.

ABOUT THE ORGANISERS

CEE Centre For DIGITAL FINANCE

The CEE Centre for Digital Finance is a non-governmental, for-impact organisation that brings together key stakeholders in digital finance innovation across Central and Eastern Europe. Its mission is to accelerate the growth, resilience, and competitiveness of the digital finance sector in the region. Through its initiatives, the Centre connects fintech companies, SMEs, supporting industries, public authorities, and academia to create favourable conditions for the development and adoption of digital finance solutions. We believe that strengthening fintech ecosystems across the region will unlock innovation, attract investment, and support sustainable economic development.

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FEBA) at Sofia University

Sofia University is the first school of higher education in Bulgaria. Its history is an embodiment and a continuation of centuries of cultural and educational tradition in Bulgaria. FEBA is one of the leading institutions for teaching and research in the field of Economics and Business in the country and the Balkan region. FEBA’s mission is to produce highly-qualified graduates capable of working in all spheres of our public life.

Our graduate programmes reflect the changes in society and business by providing specialised knowledge. In October 2021, we launched a Master’s degree in Finance, Investments and Fintech whose next step is the From Zero to Fintech Hackathon. We are committed to continue providing the highest quality of teaching and research implemented with real-life business cases and opportunities.

Learn more about the organisers-
CEE Centre for Digital Finance and
Finance and Investments Master’s degree program at FEBA at Sofia University